


Some Things Never Change

by InfaWrit10



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Dark Side of Disney Continuation, Dark Side of Disney content??? In 2021??????? The world’s gone mad, Gen, can be pre-romantic but I wrote it platonically, just two pals hangin’ out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29832999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfaWrit10/pseuds/InfaWrit10
Summary: Roman and Virgil never stopped their Disney debates.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders
Comments: 8
Kudos: 35





	Some Things Never Change

**Author's Note:**

> Had this in my docs for months before I felt satisfied with it. Hope you enjoy!

“Hey, Virge,” Roman called softly from his spot against the Commons’ couch arm.

Virgil grunted above him, too focused on his tumblr dash to give anything else.

_ “Brave,” _ Roman said.

The whispering taps and swipes of Virgil’s scrolling thumb halted. “What?”

_ “Brave,” _ he repeated unhelpfully. “The movie.”

Virgil’s eyes confusedly searched the ceiling for a minute. Being parts of the same brain was the only reason he could piece together what his friend expected of him at all. “Oh,” he realized, rolling onto his stomach. “Um… If magic does exist, you should never trust it.”

“Dag nab it,” Roman muttered.

Virgil snorted, smirking lazily.

They never stopped doing this. As a matter of fact, it had become a rather significant bonding point between the two of them. After “The Dark Side of Disney”, it was a fairly common occurrence for Roman to name a random Disney movie out of the blue, and for Virgil to supply its dark meaning. It was their game, their inside joke, their running gag. Neither would admit it, but to have that inch of common ground where the two stubborn opposites could both stand to be… That was precious to them. Even if they were better friends now, it was still cute to harken back to the first real time they’d seen eye to eye.

_ “Tangled,” _ Roman tried.

“Trust no one,” Virgil replied instantly. “Except the guy who broke into your place and tried to rob you. He’s chill.”

“He thought no one lived there! Why you gotta come at my boy Flynn like that?”

“You mean  _ Eugene,” _ Virgil corrected pointedly.

Roman squinted, thinking very hard. “There’s a pun in there somewhere.”

Virgil chuckled lightly, and he briefly brought a hand up to vaguely cover it. He must have realized quickly that it was useless, however, because he dropped it, and perched his chin on his knuckles.

_ “Robin Hood,” _ Princey suggested.

“Stealing is okay, so long as it’s from people who are more powerful than you. That one’s pretty common knowledge, Princey.”

Roman groaned.  _ “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” _ he muttered through gritted teeth.

“Killing people gets you respect. Also, don’t trust the church.”

The prince growled.

Shrugging, Virgil added, “There’s a lot more I could rattle off for that one in particular, but I think we’d be here for a while.” Stealing a glance at Roman’ pout, Virgil smiled teasingly. “Seems you’re slipping a bit, Princey. I mean,  _ Hunchback?  _ Really? You  _ know _ I’m gonna tear that apart.”

Defensively, the prince bitterly suggested, “Alright, well why don’t  _ you _ throw out a few, then, Bother Goth-el?”

“Okay.” He hummed, pondering.  _ “Alice in Wonderland.” _

“An adventure awaits you anywhere!” The prince proclaimed.

“And you should drink and eat random things, when you don’t know where they came from. Also, running away from your problems solves  _ everything.” _

The prince shot a look over his shoulder. “Disney’s allowed to make cautionary tales. Take Snow White! It’s the same deal: don’t do what the main character does.”

_ “Pinocchio,” _ Virgil simultaneously countered and ignored him, because that excuse was flimsy and false, and didn’t deserve a response.

“Simple! Lying is bad!”

“And even  _ if _ you lie, things will just work out in the end.” Virgil shrugged innocently. “Never mind if it makes you a bad person.”

Roman groaned again, with feeling this time.

Virgil casted his gaze to the corner of the room idly. “Not to mention that movie was traumatic, anyway.”

Roman shivered visibly. “I still hear the Pleasure Island screams.”

“Me too. Sometimes, they keep Thomas up at night,” Virgil admitted.

Roman amusedly spun to face his anxious friend. “Get out of here, really?”

Virgil nodded. “Sometimes I use it, yeah. When I remember it, which isn’t often.”

A tad mockingly, Roman exaggerated a nod of his head. “More important things to worry about.”

“Duh,” Virgil responded simply, causing Princey to laugh as he turned back around.

“Uh…” Roman floundered amusedly.  _ “Tarzan.” _

Unexpectedly, Virgil dropped a pale hand on Roman’s shoulder. With a sweeping gesture of his other arm, he grimly replied, “Racism. Racism everywhere.”

The reference sent Roman into a laughing fit. Smirking triumphantly, Virgil asked, “Like that?”

Helplessly, and still chuckling heartily, Princey nodded.

Grinning unabashedly now, Virgil shook his head fondly, bangs swaying.

Roman came down with a falsetto sigh, and coughed out,  _ “The Jungle Book.” _

Virgil shrugged a shoulder. “Well now we’re back to the ‘man is dangerous’ thing again. Also deforestation, anyone?” He asked with a cock of his head.

The prince melodramatically sighed with an exaggerated eye roll, slumping back against the couch arm even more. “You’re impossible.”

With a smug quirk of his brow, Virgil asked, “Give up yet?”

As soon as he’d slumped, Roman shot up again, turning surprisedly to face his friend’s rare streak of confidence. “Cocky, are we?”

Virgil shrugged again, nonchalant. “Well I mean, I win, so.”

“What do you mean, ‘win’?!” Roman questioned, leaping to his feet. He was shocked to see Virgil unfazed by the commotion. He jabbed an accusatory finger in his direction. “You said it yourself that we were both right in the original video!”

“Yeah, and we are,” Virgil explained calmly. Or rather, as calmly as Virgil could possibly be. “But this is for fun, and I was able to rise to your challenges.”

Roman stared him down. Very suddenly, his annoyance melted to his usual confidence. That was when Virgil paled.

“What are you going to…?” The emo mumbled.

“You’ve forced my hand, Virgil,” Roman murmured ominously. “I didn’t want it to have to come to this…”

Playing along—playing along well, actually, as seen from the intensity in the tense line of his body, like a spooked cat without the curved back—Virgil leaned over the side of the couch, a scared but challenging glint in his eyes. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Roman’s face twisted into a wicked grin. “Oh, but I would.”

“Roman, no—“

_ “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” _

Virgil’s eyelids slammed down into an offended glare instantly. “How  _ dare  _ you.”

“Can you do it?” Princey sassed.

“Please don’t make me,” Virgil begged in a hoarse whisper. “You will never think of it the same way again and I really don’t wanna ruin this for you.”

Roman cupped a hand around the shell of his ear. “Oh, what’s that?” The prince asked, leaning toward his friend now curled in a loose fetal on the couch. “Virge, do you—do you hear that? It sounds like a… like a white flag fluttering in the breeze.”

Virgil made a pained noise like a sad, deflating balloon. Cringing, he screwed his eyes tight and managed to groan, “... Cultural appropriation.”

Roman’s eyes popped open wide.  _ “Woah!” _

Virgil shot him a patronizing glare. “I  _ warned  _ you.”

Princey huffed, shoulders drooping.

They continuously stared each other down, waiting for the other to make the next move.

“You sure you wanna do this again?” Virgil baited, knowing in his metaphysical  _ bones  _ what Roman was going to jump to next.

Roman narrowed his eyes, meeting his challenge.  _ “The Black Cauldron.” _

“You’re dead to me,” Virgil spat immediately.

Princey scoffed and shrugged. “Listen, if you can’t come up with a dark theme for  _ this  _ one, I don’t think there’s hope for you.”

Clutching his heart, Virgil replied, “But you came for my  _ favorite. God,  _ I thought we were  _ friends,  _ Princey.” It would have stung, had Roman not seen the playfulness in his friend’s eyes.

“You came for my favorites,” Roman pointed out with a flamboyant roll of his wrist.

“They’re  _ all _ your favorites,” Virgil retorted.

With bratty bobbles of his head, Princey countered, “Which means it  _ hurts _ more.”

Virgil rolled his eyes into the back of his head. “Oh, brother.”

Roman prompted him with a roll of his wrist. “Well?”

With a halfhearted shrug, he said, “I don’t know, uh… Having dreams gets in the way of what’s really important?”

“Wow,” Roman punctuated, offended by Virgil’s audacity.

“Well, I mean, they try to convince Taron he’s a cog in the machine in the beginning of the flick, I don’t know. You try coming up with a nice little innocent Disney message in that one.”

Roman frowned, considering it. “... Okay, touché.”

“Mutual surrender?” Virgil offered.

Princey eyed Virgil’s hopeful upticked brow, and was just about to concede when one last title popped up in his brain. “One more.”

Readying himself, Virgil shifted into his back, leaning the back of his head on his forearm. “Lay it on me.”

_ “Hercules.” _

“You—“ He stopped abruptly, mouth pursed and frozen on the last syllable. Then, after a few seconds’ pause, he dropped it. His brows knit, and he perked up skeptically.

Blink, blink, blink.

Roman’s eyes progressively got wider, and wider, and wider, his jaw reaching further towards the floor. “You can’t do it, can you?”

“I’m  _ thinking, _ just gimme a sec—“

_ “You can’t do it!”  _ Roman repeated victoriously.

“Oh, here we go,” Virgil, filled with dread, prepared himself just in time for—

A  _ booming  _ guffaw from Roman. He did a little jig where he stood, and Virgil boredly—if not affectionately—watched him do so.

“I  _ win!”  _ The royal proclaimed.

Virgil, who’d been thinking of a way to spin this and recover the whole time, chose that moment to pipe up. “Well, okay, I might not be able to find a dark message, but there’s still the inaccuracies in the depiction of Grecian culture, which I’m sure they don’t appreciate.”

“Minor as they are,” Roman countered with a frivolous wave of his hand.

“Doesn’t make it right,” Virgil retorted.

Roman crossed his arms, staring annoyedly down at him. Virgil knew he’d gotten in one final jab. “... I hate it when you’re right.”

Triumphantly, Virgil smirked. “Good thing it’s not often.” He shrugged at the compromise, and casually offered, “Alright, so we both win. You managed to catch me, but I managed to get in that parting shot at the end.”

Roman, pouting petulantly, claimed, “... I won better than you did.”

Nodding condescendingly, Virgil responded, “Sure ya did, Princey.”

“I won  _ cleaner _ than you did,” he corrected himself.

A skeptical brow rose on Virgil’s forehead. “You saying I fight dirty?”

Roman smirked deviously. “I’m saying you need a shower.”

“Get outta here!” Virgil swiped at him, knowing he’d miss.

Roman skittered away from him anyway, giggling. “Hey.”

Virgil grunted, brows raised, in his general direction.

“Wanna watch one?” Princey offered.

For once, Virgil genuinely smiled, and started to move so Roman had room on the couch. “Anything but  _ Hercules.” _

Of course Roman put that one on, but Virgil had secretly wanted to watch it, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up in the comments if you can come up with a dark message for Hercules. I haven’t been able to come up with anything decent in the months I’ve been writing this, so if you have an idea, I’d love to hear it! Let me know if you have any other dark Disney messages like these for other movies I didn’t cover here!


End file.
